Winter storm should move out of Arkansas by midnight, forecasters say; ice, slush still on some roads

A map from the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the National Weather Service office in Little Rock shows sleet, slush and ice on roads Thursday afternoon.
A map from the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the National Weather Service office in Little Rock shows sleet, slush and ice on roads Thursday afternoon.

A winter storm that covered much of Arkansas in ice should move out of the state by midnight, according to the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

Dylan Cooper, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, said the most reported sleet accumulation in Arkansas was near the White County community of Joy, which got 4 inches of sleet over the past two days.

"Ongoing winter storm is finally winding to a close today with a lingering band of freezing rain moving from west to east across the state," according to the Weather Service's afternoon forecast. "Overall intensity of cellular convection within this band has been decreasing over the last few hours so, while additional light ice accumulations are likely through the afternoon and early evening, significant accumulations are not expected."

Frigid Canadian air was moving south and would plummet temperatures tonight into the upper single digits to teens for Northwest Arkansas, and 20s/30s elsewhere, according to the forecast.

"Friday will see additional warming with highs above freezing for most areas outside the Ozarks and Ouachitas," according to the forecast.

– Bill Bowden

2:30 p.m.

Entergy customers were experiencing 26,974 outages as of 2:15 p.m. Thursday, with the most outages being reported in Crittenden County at 5,149,  Saint Francis County at 7,127, and Cross County at 3,294. You can view outages at https://bit.ly/3shrEgi.

There were 6,435 Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas members without power as of 2:15 p.m. Thursday with the most outages reported in Saint Francis County at 3,758, Cross County at 796, and Lee County at 309. You can view outages at https://outages.aecc.com/outages/maps

The IDriveArkansas.com traffic map showed that roads were mostly clear in Little Rock at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, with roads north of the city still affected by ice patches and slush.

– Brianna Kwasnik

How to check for icy road conditions, closures, outages in Arkansas

Closures: The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is compiling a list of school, office and other weather-related closures (arkansasonline.com/223clos/). See one we’re missing? Email bkwasnik@adgnewsroom.com.

Power Outages

  • Electric Cooperative Members: https://outages.aecc.com/outages/maps. Outages can be viewed on the outage map and customers can view the number of outages by county.
  • Entergy customers: https://bit.ly/3t89ahq
  • Entergy customers can view outages in real-time on the utility’s outage map. Outages can be viewed by county or zip code.

Roads: The Arkansas Department of Transportation IDriveArkansas map (https://idrivearkansas.com/) shows which portions of the roads are covered in ice, ice patches, slush or snow, and which roads are clear. The map also shows which highways are closed, flooded roadways, and where incidents have been reported. The Arkansas Department of Transportation’s IDriveArkansas Twitter page shows real-time updates about reported incidents. https://twitter.com/IDriveArkansas.

Weather: 

11:54 a.m.

Entergy customers were experiencing 29,983 outages as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, with the most outages being reported in Crittenden County at 7,075, Saint Francis County at 7,446, and Cross County at 5,364. You can view outages at https://bit.ly/3shrEgi.

There were 10,345 Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas members without power as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday with the most outages reported in Saint Francis County at 4,258, Cross County at 3,252, and Lee County at 1,310. You can view outages at https://outages.aecc.com/outages/maps. 

– Brianna Kwasnik

10:58 a.m.

A second wave of freezing rain began moving through Arkansas this morning.

"Up to an additional quarter of an inch of ice is possible from mainly Central through northeast Arkansas today," the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said in a briefing early Thursday. "Some higher terrain areas could see locally heavier amounts.

"This amount of ice will lead to additional travel problems on area roadways. Elevated roadways are at particular risk. Power outages are increasing and these numbers are likely to keep going up with additional ice accumulation on electrical lines."

The Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas currently have about 8,000 members without electricity due to the current round of winter weather, said Rob Roedel, a spokesman for the cooperatives.

"Crews are working to restore service to impacted members," he said. "Woodruff Electric Cooperative of Forrest City is the hardest hit cooperative with more than 5,000 members without service. The outages are concentrated in St. Francis County are largely due to trees and limbs on power lines."

Entergy Arkansas had 27,091 customers without power as of 10 a.m. That included 7,335 in Crittenden County, 6,184 in St. Francis County and 2,318 in Cross County.

At 9:45 a.m., the Weather Service issued a radar update on Twitter: "Heads up northwest AR! Thunderstorms (yes, you read that right...) are moving across the region, and are capable of heavy sleet and even some small hail. Exercise caution if you're out on the roads today!"

The Arkansas Department of Transportation was taking advantage of a lull in precipitation early Thursday to put rock salt down on highways in Central Arkansas, according to a Twitter post.

Ice patches and ice are present on roads in the northern half of the state Thursday morning, according to a map from the Arkansas Department of Transportation. 

According to the map, portions of the north including Fayetteville, Mountain Home, and Fort Smith have ice on the roads. 

Roads south of Little Rock are mostly clear. 

Early Thursday, the agency's IDriveArkansas.com map showed four wrecks on interstate highways — three in Pulaski County and one in Johnson County.

Two of the wrecks involved 18-wheelers. A truck rolled over on Interstate 40 about a mile northeast of Maumelle at 7:32 a.m. today, but it wasn't blocking a traffic lane, according to Idrivearkansas.com.

There was an crash involving an 18-wheeler at about the same time this morning north of Knoxville in Johnson County. It was blocking the outside lane, according to the website. That vehicle had apparently been removed from the traffic lane by 10 a.m.

The website also noted several stalled vehicles waiting for a tow truck.

The temperature this afternoon is forecast to be above freezing for much of Central Arkansas, but any ice that melts will refreeze tonight when the temperature drops back down into the 20s, according to the Weather Service.

The precipitation is forecast to move out of Arkansas tonight. High temperatures on Friday are forecast to be in the 40s in Central Arkansas and upper 30s in Northwest Arkansas.

9:56 a.m.

Entergy customers were experiencing 27,233 outages as of 9:30 a.m. Thursday, with the most outages being reported in Crittenden County at 6,944, Saint Francis County at 6,191, and Cross County at 2,113. You can view outages at https://bit.ly/3shrEgi.

There were 6,211 Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas members without power as of Thursday morning with the most outages reported in Saint Francis County at 3,568, Cross County at 927 and Crittenden County at 533. You can view outages at https://outages.aecc.com/outages/maps. 

– Brianna Kwasnik

EARLIER:

Freezing rain is forecast across most of Arkansas today.

It'll be Arkansas' second round of wintry weather in two days.

"Another quarter to half inch of ice is possible over northern Arkansas through Thursday," the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said in an update Wednesday night. "Localized amounts of up to three-quarters of an inch can not be ruled out over parts of north central to northeast Arkansas.

"This amount of ice will likely lead to travel problems on area roadways. Power outages could also occur with this much ice accumulation on electrical lines."

Roughly 27,466 Entergy customers were without power across the state just after 8 a.m., according to an outage map. About 6,666  Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas customers were also without power, a separate map indicated.

According to Entergy Arkansas, one half-inch of ice can increase the weight of a tree limb as much as 30 times, causing even smaller limbs to bend or snap, falling onto power lines and causing an outage.

Counties that were forecast to get the most ice from Wednesday night through today were Clay, Craighead, Greene, Independence, Jackson, Mississippi, Poinsett, Randolph and White, according to an updated map from the weather service.

Schools, government offices and businesses closed early on Wednesday in anticipation of the storm. Gov. Asa Hutchinson closed state office buildings except for critical operations today. The storm also disrupted air travel.

The only part of the state not forecast to get freezing rain today was the extreme southeast corner.

Two-thirds of Arkansas was under a winter storm warning Wednesday night, with another 22 counties under a winter weather advisory. Only six counties in southeast Arkansas were under neither a warning nor advisory.

"Moisture will continue to move across the state through Thursday bringing primarily freezing rain to Arkansas," the Weather Service said in a Wednesday night briefing. "While isolated pockets of sleet and snow can not be ruled out, freezing rain will be the primary concern tonight and into Thursday."

Temperatures could briefly rebound today, warming enough for freezing rain concerns to lessen with just a cold rain possible for some, according to the briefing.

Little Rock is forecast to have a high temperature of 37 degrees today, but the temperature will likely remain below freezing in Fayetteville and Harrison. After bottoming out at about 26 degrees tonight, the high in Little Rock is forecast to be 43 degrees on Friday, while the high in Fayetteville will be about 34 degrees.

"As rain departs the state Thursday night, colder air will again surge southward which could lead to a brief period of light snow before precipitation comes to an end area-wide," according to the Weather Service.

The amount of precipitation from Tuesday through today could saturate the soil and contribute to localized flooding in some areas, according to the Weather Service.

On Wednesday, Arkansas braced for ice.

A shift in the forecast sent the Arkansas Department of Transportation scrambling to put rock salt on highways in Central Arkansas.

Initially, Little Rock wasn't forecast to get freezing rain, but that changed on Wednesday morning when the Weather Service shifted its initial ice forecast farther to the south.

"The system evolved quicker than predicted, which meant we had to respond quicker than we had hoped," said Dave Parker, a spokesman for the Transportation Department. "Fortunately, we did heavy pre-treatment in the north, Northwest and the north central part of the state. Here in Central Arkansas, we didn't pre-treat because we were expecting heavy rains and it would wash it away."

Tweets from the Transportation Department revealed a sense of urgency Wednesday morning.

"Central Arkansas is loading brine tankers and will start pre-treating major routes within the hour," the department said on Twitter at 9:30 a.m.

An hour later, there was another tweet: "This is not a plowing event. It's going to be primarily ice. All 10 Districts are moving to 24 hour coverage."

For Northwest Arkansas, it was mostly a sleet and snow event on Wednesday, said Craig Sullivan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa. He said much of the area had 1 inch of accumulated sleet and snow, but some sections of Madison and Sebastian counties reported 2 inches.

Madison County Sheriff Rick Evans said it wasn't enough to cause any serious traffic problems on Wednesday.

"We're kinda like everybody else," he said. "We've had folks sliding and slipping around, but nothing major that I'm aware of."

Newton County Sheriff Glenn Wheeler said some truck drivers had trouble climbing steep grades in the mountains because they couldn't get traction on the slippery pavement, but those problems had been cleared as of sundown Wednesday.

"I did put out a message like we do in bad weather," said Wheeler. "We hope people stay home."

If someone is in desperate need of baby formula or other emergency necessities, Wheeler said someone from the sheriff's office can bring it to them.

Sullivan said Northwest Arkansas was forecast to get one-tenth to one-quarter inch of ice today.

At the request of the Arkansas State Police, 80 Arkansas National Guard soldiers and airmen will patrol state highways and interstates to assist motorists during the winter storm, according to a news release from the National Guard.

One winter storm support truck team consists of five guardsmen and two Humvees, plus communications equipment, according to the release. The guardsmen will be assisting State Police troopers based in Little Rock, Newport, Jonesboro, Forrest City, Fort Smith, Harrison, Clarksville and Lowell.

Highways throughout Northwest Arkansas and the Ouachita Mountains were covered with ice, ice patches or slush on Wednesday night, according to https://idrivearkansas.com. Highways in south Arkansas were clear at that time.

– Bill Bowden

Read more about winter weather in Arkansas

•   Arkansas schools announce weather-related closures » arkansasonline.com/223clos/

•  Take our winter safety quiz » arkansasonline.com/wintersafetyquiz/

•  ARDOT winter weather map » idrivearkansas.com


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